The Only Heir

"Friends and...well, friends"

It's astonishing how fascinating tiny creatures can be.

The little squirrel juts her head out of the thicket of branches of a peepal tree. Her tiny head looks both ways and after checking her surroundings to her heart's content she runs down the length of the tree to grab a piece of chapati littered on the ground after the lunch break. Probably left by a kid who didn't fancy his mother's cooking to the canteen garbage.

"It's a nice squirrel, isn't she?", a voice drawls

"Yes", I reply.

"Then perhaps I should ask you to leave the class so you can enjoy your noon with her."

I jerk away from the window to look up at the nostrils of one of my least favourite people in the world.

Geeta ma'am looks at me like I'm something particularly nasty she found in her morning cereal, assuming that she doesn't munch on teenage bones for breakfast.

"Meera, do you mind repeating what I just explained to the class?"

I look down at my book, I don't even remember where we were. I inconspicuously look in front of me at Sonia's book, who is vigorously tapping at the table on the difference between delegation and decentralisation.

"You just explained the difference between delegation and decentralisation. Decentralisation takes place throughout the organisation for no fixed period of time while delegation is done on a smaller scale by a superior giving authority and responsibility to its subordinate when the workload is too much," I explain in a single breath without breaking eye contact.

Her lips twitch as if she wants to sneer at me but refrain from doing so because it might seem slightly unprofessional.

"I would rather have students who behave and pay attention to me over those who think they are smart," she says and walks away with a haughty air.

I nod silently not wanting to look at her face for a single second longer. God takes pity on us and the bell rings announcing the end of the day.

I grab my bag and stuff my belongings unceremoniously into it. I'm halfway out of my row when Sonia catches up to me. She grabs my hand making me look at her.

"Wait," she says.

"Make a line everybody, boys to the right and girls on the left. I'm not letting anybody go home if they are not in line."Geeta ma'am orders from the door of the class.

Seriously? What's wrong with this woman. Most of us are 18 years old or will be, like in my case, this year. And she wants us to make a line, we might as well hold each other's bags and walk like kindergartners, waving at the security guards and making sure to be in line as if our lives depend upon it.

"You know how Kamini is, where were you lost in the class?"

"I zoned out for a bit," I say.

"I understand," she replies with pitiful eyes. She doesn't understand. No one does but they sure love to pretend that they do.

We walk no more than two paces before getting out of Geeta ma'am's sight and into the crowd of hormonal teenagers of St.Mary model school.

After a dozen handshakes, high-fives and smiles to my friends from different streams, we finally reach the class of my best friend which was only at the end of the corridor.

What? are you surprised? is it mandatory for the protagonist to be a nobody teenager? huh.

Yes, I'm moderately popular but don't get me wrong, I'm not the mean girl of the batch.

Bani comes out of the class and smiles at us and I catch a few guys staring at her. Yes, she is that pretty and just about as ignorant of it.

You know how every girl has that one best friend to whom she says 'if you were a guy, I would've married you'. She that for me.

We've known each other for little more than a year but I already know that she is my soul sister. And I certainly like her much more than Sonia who I've known since kindergarten. Sonia and I became best friends in the seventh standard because she was a little more mature than the average seventhy but it seems like she has stayed in the 'little more mature than an average seventhy phase' for far too long.

Together we head to the school entrance, all the while narrating to each other the itinerary of what happened in the last few hours we hadn't talked.

My neck tingles and I feel a shiver run down my back. I turn my head towards the ground, at the far edge of it which had a sliver of forestry land before the school boundary started.

Someone was there. I felt it.

"Meera?"

I turn towards Bani who is looking at me with raised eyebrows. I shake my head and resume my walk toward my van.